The Nesquehoning Historical Society recently featured Bob Kuzma, who shared stories about his 45 years at Kovatch Mobile Equipment in Nesquehoning.

Kuzma started at KME in 1971 when there were only nine employees working in two small bays. He eventually worked his way up to become the facilities manager.He was part of the team that was putting up new buildings and expanding old ones. One building was added onto so many times that he had to re-hang the same garage doors eight times.Kuzma talked about his friendship with Sonny Kovatch and several adventures that came up when they bought machinery and buildings at auction.Expanding operationsOne adventure in particular, was when Bright's was closing in Lansford. Sonny sent Kuzma over to buy some specific equipment that was needed for the business. Then, at the last minute, the auctioneer offered Kuzma an excellent deal on an elevator so he agreed to buy that, too. When Sonny found out about the elevator they all had a good laugh and decided to expand another building to put the elevator to good use.Kuzma and Ron Blizard, another a Kovatch employee, were among the first certified EMTs in Carbon County. KME has always supported the local fire and ambulance emergency crews, which includes allowing first responders who are employed by KME to leave work whenever a fire or ambulance emergency comes up.Bringing in businessAnother interesting story Kuzma shared was the way that Redner's came to be in Nesquehoning.Sonny believed that it would be a real benefit to the community to have a large grocery store in town. Kuzma pitched the idea to several different supermarket chains, but they all turned it down because they thought that the demographics were not going to be right for their business model.One of the representatives even told Kuzma, "We would sooner put a store in the parking lot of the Acme in Jim Thorpe than to build in Nesquehoning."Finally Redner's agreed to move in.There was a huge chunk of mountain that needed to be moved in order to have a large enough parking lot.With help from KME machinery, Redner's reshaped the landscape and created a successful operation that serves the people of Nesquehoning and surrounding communities.Following the presentation, a special certificate of thanks was presented to Kuzma on behalf of the historical society. The members then swapped more stories.The next meeting of the Nesquehoning Historical Society will be held at 6 p.m. March 24 at Maple Shade Senior Living in Nesquehoning. Everyone is invited and there is no charge to attend.